Traveling During Sukkot – Combining a Vacation with a Mitzvah

Well, the Silver family is on the move again! No, we’re not moving houses or anything — in fact, you might say it’s more about our temporary house than our real house! This year, for Sukkot 2018 (which starts on the evening of Sunday, September 23), we will once again be traveling for an exciting Sukkot vacation!
I don’t want to say just yet where exactly we’ll be going, but you can check out Leisure Time Tours if you want to get an idea!

There are so many good things to love about a kosher Sukkot vacation. There’s the travel part, of course, the opportunity to go somewhere beautiful and exotic, regardless of whether it’s a familiar vacation spot or somewhere completely new. Traveling is fun! (I mean, maybe not the traveling part itself – airports can be a hassle of course, and my husband occasionally travels for work and let’s just say that more often than not it can be a headache). You know what I mean – visiting a new city, exploring nature, spending time with family, relaxing at the pool, and lots of that good stuff.

Sukkot vacations are also great because you don’t have to worry about food: Everything kosher is taken care of for you. Also, unlike a Passover vacation, the food doesn’t have to be prepared kosher for pesach, so you can really get the full range of yummy foods and treats. Similarly, at a Sukkot vacation there’s minyanim and shiurs and everything else, so you can have a Sukkot vacation that is spiritually fulfilling in addition to being super fun and relaxing.

Traveling during Sukkot is also a great way to combine a vacation with a mitzvah. One example is the sukkah itself: Many Sukkot vacation programs (including the one we booked) erect the sukkah so you don’t have to! Fun fact: building the sukkah isn’t a mitzvah by itself, but is part of the whole sukkot idea of dwelling in sukkah, which means you don’t have to build your own sukkah, and can instead relax inside the big and beautiful hotel sukkah when you arrive! The program I booked also arranges a lulav and etrog for you, so you don’t have to bring one with you (trust me, it can be unwieldy to fly with a bunch of lulavs in the overhead compartment), but always make sure to double-check if your lulav is included or if you need to bring your own!
So excited about the Sukkot vacation, even though it’s weeks away!
More soon,
Ariella